


Not Sleeping Tonight

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Hunk, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:17:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After getting separated from the rest of the paladins, Hunk finds himself rescued by an unlikely trio.</p><p>(For Voltron Week 2016. Character and ship tags added as they appear.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Sleeping Tonight

Everything hurt. Their vision blurred before them, but they could see… brown? The ceiling seemed brown, blurry and dazed before them, and Hunk tried to push themself up. At least to a sitting position, maybe not standing, but their… their arm wouldn’t work…?

The yellow paladin looked down at their right arm, so out of it and with a memory niggling at them, a concern they shouldn’t have forgotten. It was in a cast. Hunk blinked at it a few times, trying to bring it into focus and absorb that, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t move it, and even if they couldn’t quite remember why, that wasn’t going to deter them from figuring out where they were.

Carefully, they pushed themself into a sitting position with their left hand – they hurt so much they weren’t sure they would be able to sit up normally, not without the support of their arm – and the world spun. A beeping noise sounded, alarmed and high-pitched, and Hunk groaned at the noise. It was killing their already throbbing head, and they couldn’t think.

“Easy, easy,” a voice cut through the stabbing pain, gentle, warm touches on their arm and shoulder pushing them back down on the bed (?) they were lying on. Hunk didn’t protest. They hurt too much, and whoever it was was probably looking out for their best interests.

The voice was soft and they sunk into that, clinging to the fact that someone with a soft voice and soft hands was taking care of them. “Sleep. You’ll feel better next time you wake.”

They made some sort of noise, Hunk was sure, but it wasn’t coherent. They blinked repeatedly, trying TRYING to catch a glimpse of who it was, but all they saw was a blurry expanse of yellow, and they were out.

—-

When they woke, Hunk wasn’t sure what time it was. It was space, to be honest – they hadn’t known what time it was since they left Arus. There was no way to indicate that kind of thing when you were flying around the cosmos in a big old castleship.

Wow, their head was a lot clearer now. They hurt a lot less, too, at least enough that it wasn’t going to kill them.

Mindful of their broken arm, Hunk sat up, glancing around the small ship and trying to figure out where they were. It looked… familiar? It was old, messy, and-

More beeping went off, and the yellow paladin cringed. It wasn’t as bad this time, and they could detect a distinct pattern, but it still HURT, and they groaned.

“Hey, hey, we’ve got you.”

The voice was back again, gentle hands on their arms, and Hunk made themself look up as the beeping quieted… only to stare right into the purple eyes of Nyma. Aka the lady who had _tried to steal Lance’s lion._

They reeled back immediately, eyes narrowing. “Why am I here? Where are the others?” Hunk demanded, their suspicion level even higher than it had been before. A horrible, horrible thought occurred to them. “Where’s my lion?”

She lifted her hands placatingly, before pointing. “It’s right there.” Lo and behold, their yellow lion was actually sitting within the ship. In a particle barrier, yes, but she was still there, and Hunk sagged with momentarily relief before realizing she hadn’t answered their other questions.

“What about the rest of my team?” They insisted, and Nyma shrugged, glancing back to where they could see Rolo piloting the ship.

“We didn’t see anyone else. Just you in your lion, floating around. And…”

Rolo spoke up, leaning over the back of his chair to look at them. “Look, Hunk, right? I know we didn’t get off to a good start. I don’t blame you if you don’t trust us. But we weren’t gonna leave you floating out in space for the Galra to find, and we’re… not gonna turn you in this time.”

Nyma frowned at that, folding her arms, and Hunk could guess that was not something they had come to easy agreement on. So they questioned it, forcing tired eyes to focus on the pair. “You’re not? Why not?”

“We’re not evil,” Nyma spoke, rolling her eyes. “If we would’ve turned in Lance’s lion, we would’ve had a full pardon and we wouldn’t be on the run from the Empire anymore.” She sighed. “But we mucked that one up, so we can’t really try again.”

The idea that they wouldn’t turn them in because they _physically couldn’t_ set the yellow paladin at more ease, and they leaned back against the pillows.  “Okay.” There really weren’t options right now – Hunk’s arm was broken, so they couldn’t exactly fight back, they weren’t in their lion (and who knew if that particle barrier would go down or not if they tried to make a break for it?), they were EXHAUSTED, and the trio SEEMED sincere.

That beeping went off again, and they winced, pressing their good hand to their ear. “Beezer, you gotta stop, I think his head got rattled around a lot,” Nyma said, shaking her head, and the robot quieted.

“Their.”

She blinked purple eyes at them. “What?”

“Their head. I’m not a him.”

This time, Nyma sounded genuinely apologetic. “Oh, sorry. Won’t do it again.”

“Thanks,” they murmured, their eyes starting to involuntarily flicker shut. Hunk struggled to stay awake – they didn’t trust them, not fully, but they were still so desperately tired…

She stepped forward, resting one furry – hehe, did that mean Lance was a furry? – hand on their good arm. “Sleep, paladin. You got really hurt.”

They tried, tried so hard to stay awake. “If you do anything… I’ll… I’ll…”

Nyma giggled. “You’ll hurt us, I know. Sleep.”

And so they did.

—-

When they awoke later, Nyma was flying the ship and Rolo was stretched out in a chair next to Hunk. Apparently, they’d been asleep for four telniks, but that didn’t really help the paladin much. “Where are we?” was their next one.

Rolo considered. “Nyma? Location?”

She replied after a moment, surveying some screen they couldn’t see from their bed. “About 12 clicks from Deponia.”

That… still meant absolutely nothing to them, and Hunk vowed to find a map soon and start memorizing. As well as learning about alien measuring systems (though – maybe the Altean measuring systems were different from whatever Rolo and Nyma used…). “Do you know where Balmera is? The Balmera?”

Rolo nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

Hunk pressed their lips together. “I need to get there. I want to try to find the rest of my team, and that’s a good place as any to stop.”

Nyma glanced back, wrinkling her nose. “You know that place is swarming with Galra, right? I don’t exactly fancy being executed, or worse.”

The yellow paladin shook their head. “No, we freed it.”

It was as if every single person in the small ship stared at them. Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer all stopped what they were doing and just. Stared. “You… freed it? Defeated all those Galra?” Rolo finally spoke up, astonished.

Hunk blushed underneath their scrutiny. “Um… yeah. We did. I told you that we were gonna stop the Galra, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but… I didn’t think you’d actually DO it,” Nyma replied, baffled.

Rolo snorted, leaning back in his seat. “Well. Full speed to Balmera, then.”

Nyma sighed. “Fine, fine. Beezer, co-pilot?”

As the robot hopped into the chair to take over that slot, Hunk gave Rolo an awkward smile. They weren’t sure that they TRUSTED Rolo and the others yet, but… still. “Thanks.”

The purple alien shrugged. “Consider it an apology for trying to steal your teammate’s lion.”

“…Okay,” Hunk accepted, leaning back and relaxing. They’d be able to go see Shay, the other Balmerans… Maybe one of the other paladins made it there? God, hopefully.

Cause after this, they weren’t sure what to do next.


End file.
